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Guildrs D&D Wiki

WHO is your character???

Introduction

Section titled Introduction

Creating a player character is a lot of fun but it can take a few sessions or more to really feel like they’ve become a person of their own accord - especially if you don’t consider WHO they are over WHAT they are.

The “What” I’m Referring To

Section titled The “What” I’m Referring To

It can be super awesome to flesh out your character’s mechanics, features, the flavour aesthetics, trivia about their backstory or why YOU made the choices you did with their design element, but this is only one half of your character. Spending the entirety of your efforts on this half can lead to you feeling aimless or disconnected from the events of the campaign - even if you really enjoy the gameplay of your character.

Elements that I personally consider are answering the What of your character are:

  • Physical appearance or traits
  • Gameplay mechanics or systems, or flavour text adjacent to them
    • This includes descriptions about armour, weapons, or class features that you’re keen to include in your narrative.
  • Backstory elements that only serve to explain either of the above choices i.e. a long winded event that justifies why the character has red hair instead of blue now

While I love reading these parts of your character building - this alone doesn’t help me weave a compelling narrative for yourself or the rest of the table. Telling me Who you character is helps us both avoid that situation and will definitely improve everyone’s experience at the table.

What is the “Who” then?

Section titled What is the “Who” then?

Who your character is is a mixture of their previous experiences, their moral code/compass, their current mental state and outlook, and their tendencies/behaviours. These are not static and can change as the story progresses.

It’s not a 100% accurate statement but with D&D you can think of the Who elements of your character are the things not present on a character sheet. These can include:

  • Backstory elements that explain the previous experiences of your character AND any associated current behaviours because of it.
    • They lost their family to a pack of Wolves so they’re terrified of Wolves and adjacent creatures
    • They had a lot of money stolen from them once so they don’t trust people to manage their money ever
    • Their mentor figure betrayed them without explanation so they tend to overexplain to anyone they’re worried of upsetting.
  • Examples of choices/decisions they’ve made in the past and how they personally feel about the result
    • They moved to a big city as a young-adult but regrets that decision in their later years.
    • They killed somebody accidentally and has been attempting to make up for it ever since
  • A description of their mental state/outlook at the onset of the campaign - bonus points for telling how it shifted over the years in correlation with the above tips
    • They’re really pessimistic because they never managed to prove their parental figure wrong
    • They’re young and optimistic, ready to tackle the World’s challenges for the first time
    • Originally a realist; they’ve become cynical after being double-crossed in their teens and learning the hard way that everyone only cares about themselves.
Section titled Link it all together!

Traumatic, inspiring, and otherwise life-altering events have profound affects on us in our real world - the same is true of characters we come up with. If your character has experienced something that caused them to leave their world behind for a life of adventure, it’s very likely they’ve had drastic shifts in personality or world view accordingly.

Maybe your character has a trigger word or phrase that causes very unexpected reactions, maybe there’s a very clear scar that they hide with magic or other means, maybe they have a lisp or a stammer - whatever you think fits, link their current behaviours/outlook to their previous experiences.

These improve the roleplay massively by giving you a better idea of WHO your character is and providing clear elements where you can control of the narrative for a period and reveal some backstory at a point where it feels natural.

Reach out to your GM or to other players for advice if you’re struggling to make any progress on these linkages.

Conclusion

Section titled Conclusion

Take the time to work out who your character is upfront and you’ll have an easier time putting yourself out their as you roleplay scenes and tell their story to the other players at the table.

You don’t have to have the entire picture of every person they could ever be; but just WHO they are at the start of the campaign.